Photography fun
Sacred Heart, originally uploaded by ephraemsyrus.
As one of a few unofficial event photographers for my wife's churches, I've been taking my camera with me to church a lot lately. This has the side benefit of allowing me to capture images dear to my heart, such as this window.
The inscription at its bottom indicates it was a gift from the young men of the parish. When it was new, the scrollwork was surely identical on both sides, and the blue fan on top was complete, but it's obviously been damaged and repaired in a makeshift fashion since. This seems to me apt for a window showing the Sacred Heart; the burning love of Christ is the center that holds the world together and supports it, even in its brokenness. Or, to look at it another way, in his incarnation Christ did not reject our suffering, but took it upon himself and hallowed it, that we might no longer despair but know the hope of healing and the mending of creation.
As if to complete the metaphor, the window on the other side, bearing the image of Our Lady's Immaculate Heart, is undamaged.